I have spoken to many employees in various business contexts who feel that their voices are not heard – their ideas are not listened to. As such, they feel that they don’t have a real contribution to make, feel undervalued and overlooked. Typically, this translates into despondency, and many leave their energy and passion at…
I have spoken to many employees in various business contexts who feel that their voices are not heard – their ideas are not listened to. As such, they feel that they don’t have a real contribution to make, feel undervalued and overlooked. Typically, this translates into despondency and many leave their energy and passion at…
How do companies keep up with or, better still, stay ahead of the curve with the ever-accelerating technological and cultural change that influences our world today? After all, the first text message was sent less than thirty years ago. Google has only been around for two decades, Facebook fifteen years and Twitter twelve years. Companies…
Human energy, a property tied closely to one’s motivation, is a resource that we all have. The human being is designed this way – little boys and girls are able to act out a story, run a race, build a tree-house, etc.; teenagers and young adults are able to invest time and effort into building…
One of the hallmarks of a good business manager is the ability to unlock creativity amongst other managers, supervisors and employees. There are many misconceptions about “creativity”. There is a body of people who believe that creativity is a loose form of self-expression, perhaps unrelated to anything going on in the business world. Some see…
“Thinking collaboratively is not new. What is new is the increasing complexity of information flow in organisations that calls for high levels of engagement, innovation and collective problem-solving” (Bruce Wellman) The business intelligence context for almost every type of business has changed dramatically in the past couple of decades – the transformation of roles which…
Manufacturing businesses are constantly under pressure to improve processes to become more profitable, particularly in production activities – reduction of waste, better use of resources, wise procurement practices, work flow improvement, team motivation, etc. Attempts at empowering people on the shop floor to bring about improvements, however, are often not successful, based on the following…
I recall very clearly a team’s behaviour in a large manufacturing company, the team largely been made up of engineers and operational/production experts – whenever an idea was introduced to the larger gathering, individuals would attempt to pick holes in the idea unless the introducer of the idea was able to defend the principle and…
